Light Up School Learning

Experimenting with two distinct models of professional development, Nic shares why the depth-over-breadth structure won out and the impact this has had on his school.

At Victoria Park Primary School in Bristol, our vision is for children to​“find their place in the world” and for our staff to​“nurture a culture of aspiration, determination and a growth mindset”. We achieve this through our values and our curriculum, and we particularly value the arts as a means to inspire individuality and develop confidence. 

We have a longstanding relationship with Travelling Light Theatre Company, who make theatre for and with children and young people to inspire their thinking and engage their emotions. As a partner school, we are treated to workshops and travelling theatre shows, as well as our annual​“Play in a Week”, which has become a rite of passage for our young people. 

We recently celebrated 10 years of working together with this wonderful video. It’s important, however, that this doesn’t only exist as a standalone opportunity or a​“bolt-on” facilitated by visiting artists. So when Travelling Light approached me to ask if Victoria Park Primary School would be interested in taking part in a professional development project for teachers designed to develop, explore, research and improve arts-based teaching and learning in schools — with a focus on oracy and emotional literacy — we were all in. 

Working with four other primary schools across Bristol, we would explore ways of working collaboratively with artists from Travelling Light to unpick, plan and deliver various aspects of the foundation curriculum. At Victoria Park Primary School, we explored two models of delivery across the two years:

• The long model, in which an artist worked with two teachers and their classes in Year 5 for an extended period of approximately 18 weeks, teaching History.
• The short model, in which artists worked with a range of teachers for a much shorter 5‑week block incorporating three weekly PSHE lessons. This model also included three whole-school staff meetings with Travelling Light artists.

As headteacher, I was keen that the CPDL reached as many teachers as possible, so favoured the short model approach. However, our evaluation found that this model was less effective in impacting pupils’ oracy and confidence, and less effective at developing staff confidence in creative practice, due to the restricted number of sessions. This realisation that reaching more staff potentially compromised the effectiveness of the CPLD was an important piece of learning for me — to what extent does our traditional CPLD model in primary schools prioritise coverage over depth? After significant amounts of time working together, our teachers reflected on how their skills and confidence had grown. Reciprocally, the artists from Travelling Light commented on how much they had learned from teachers about lesson design and effective classroom management. 

Teachers who were initially concerned that pupils’ behaviour would be adversely affected by using more active approaches in the classroom reported that, due to increased motivation and understanding, the behaviour in their classes improved as the pupils became used to the change in teaching style. Teachers, artists and pupils reported improved confidence, oracy and wellbeing, as well as enhanced recall of knowledge and concepts. Pupils worked better in groups and the climate in the classroom became more positive. Pupils spoke particularly of improved teamwork skills as well as increased motivation in their learning when arts-based approaches were used. Talking to pupils about learning in this way, the word they used more than any other was​“fun”. 

At the end of the two-year project, our focus has shifted to legacy — how do we ensure these improvements remain part of our teaching repertoire, and continue to better the learning experience for pupils? To those embarking on a similar project (or considering how to improve CPLD in their setting), I would share these key takeaways from our Light Up School Learning experience: